Chosen by Destiny
by Lady Dawson
Summary: Complete. She was the daughter of a Slayer whose mother was murdered by vampires when she was four years old. Now, Aria Sawyer arrives in Sunnydale, unknowingly about to confront her past . . . and her ultimate destiny.
1. Daughter of a Slayer

**Chosen by Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Daughter of a Slayer

Gwyneth Seymour gracefully leaped over the headstone, landing on her feet like a cat as she turned around, blocking the vampire's attack and sending him straight into a nearby tree, turning him to dust. Blue eyes blazing with power, she looked around for his mate, the redhead, but there was no sign of her. A bit worried that she would abandon her mate in the heat of battle, Gwyneth lowered her stake slightly, prepared for a surprise attack, but when none came, she cast out her Slayer senses, trying to sense where she might be.

Nothing.

There wasn't even a hint of vampiric activity in the cemetery. Gwyneth paused as she looked around, now deeply concerned, but it wasn't anything that couldn't wait for another night.

Shaking her head as she ran her fingers through her brown hair, Gwyneth started heading away from the cemetery, her steps quick and evenly-paced, her attention focused on everything around her so she didn't have a mishap that would result in her getting killed. It had happened to too many Slayers before her, dying young.

Well, Gwyneth thought with a wry smile, the Slayers that had come before her didn't have something that she did. She had something that was waiting for her when she came home, something so precious to her that it scared her to think that some demon might take it away from her.

Pushing that thought out of her mind, Gwyneth climbed up the steps to her house that she shared with her Watcher and pushed open the door, closing it behind her as she shrugged out of her coat and placed it on the coat rack, walking around the corner to find her Watcher Sam Wyatt sitting on the floor with her four-year-old daughter Arwen.

The little girl that had been born to the Slayer four years ago was the spitting image of Gwyneth herself as she looked around at her mother.

"Mama!" Arwen squealed as she scrambled to her feet, running over to her. Gwyneth smiled as she scooped up her fast-moving daughter, hoisting her up onto her hip. "Monsters go poof?"

"Yes, Mommy got the bad guys," Gwyneth assured her, kissing her daughter's brunette hair before looking at Sam. He gave her a small smile of understanding as he went to his study. "But I know one of us who is supposed to be in bed by now. Come on, little owl, let's go. Mommy will read to you and then you're going to bed."

Arwen frowned, but reluctantly allowed her mother to carry her upstairs and sweep her into her bed. "Mama, don't go out tomorrow night," she said suddenly. Gwyneth looked down at her daughter as Arwen peered up at her.

"Honey, you know Mommy has to go to work tomorrow night," she said gently and reassuringly. "I'll be back in time for you to go to bed."

"No, you won't," Arwen insisted. "Monsters will get you." Gwyneth sighed; sometimes she wondered if it had been a bad idea to let her daughter know about the dangers of the world so young. Sometimes, she didn't know if the monsters Arwen talked about were real or just her imagination.

"No, they won't. I'll make them go away."

"But I saw it!" Arwen insisted. Something about the way that Arwen said it made her mother paused, a thought passing through her head. No, no, that wasn't possible . . . but then again, Arwen was the only child born of a Slayer that anyone knew about. Who knew what kind of powers that would give her later in life? Who knew what Arwen would be capable of? "Mama, please?"

"We'll talk about it tomorrow, okay, sweetie?" Gwyneth bent over and kissed her daughter's crown before heading out of the room, turning off the light so that only the soft glow of her daughter's night-light was coming from the room. "Good night."

The moment that she closed Arwen's door behind her, Gwyneth leaned against the wall, closing her eyes carefully.

"It's never easy."

Glancing upwards, the Slayer saw her Watcher standing there, his arms folded across his chest as he smiled at his charge. "It's never easy to leave them alone, even without knowing the dangers of the world," he told her gently. "She may only be four, but she has a greater understanding of what is happening around her than you and I do."

"Sam, could she be having Slayer dreams? Is it possible?" Gwyneth queried as she followed her Watcher into his study, where his impressive, tiny library was. He could spend all of his day amongst his books and be perfectly content.

"Where Arwen is concerned, Gwyneth, anything is possible. As far as I know, there's never been a child born to a Slayer, much less a daughter. She may grow up to become a Slayer on her own, without even needing the previous Slayer to activate her."

Gwyneth frowned at the possibility. "Two Slayers at the same time?" she repeated, shaking her head in amazement. "Is that even possible?" Sam shrugged. "Do you think that she's having Slayer dreams or is it just her being a four year old? Sometimes it's hard to tell . . ."

"It's called being a mother, Gwyneth. I don't know if Arwen's dreams are indeed prophetic, but all the same, maybe it's best if you don't go patrolling tomorrow night. If nothing else, you could spend some quality time with your daughter. I know that you haven't spent many for awhile."

"Not since . . . not since Edward."

Gwyneth closed her eyes as she thought of Arwen's father, her boyfriend. Edward Grayson had barely known about the dangers that his girlfriend was involved in, nor did he know of the inheritance that his daughter would gain. When Gwyneth had finally told him, he had told her that she was crazy and went out alone at night to prove it. Scared for him, Gwyneth ran after him, but by the time that she had gotten to him, it was already too late.

And the vampires hadn't just killed him. They turned him and Gwyneth hadn't been able to kill him, her heart breaking every time she looked at what was left of the man she loved, reduced to a soulless, bloodsucking demon.

For almost five years, Gwyneth had been unable to kill the demon who wore Edward's face. He had left soon after Arwen's birth, biding his time. It was only three months ago when Edward returned and this time, he had his sights set on their daughter.

Arwen, not understanding that Edward wasn't her real father, invited him in and Sam had barely been able to fend off Edward when Gwyneth arrived back home and was forced to stake him to save Arwen.

The decision had forced her to choose between her lover and her daughter, but in reality, there had been no choice in the matter. Her lover wasn't her lover any longer. He was gone, dead a long time ago, and what was left was only the barest hint of what he had been. The man she loved wouldn't have tried to kill her. He wouldn't have attacked her daughter. He wouldn't have threatened vengeance on her, even as she plunged the stake into his heart.

"Which is why you should stay home tomorrow. Spend some time with Arwen. I know that she misses you."

Gwyneth looked longingly towards the bedroom that held her daughter, but shook her head firmly. "No, I can't," she answered quietly. "That vampire Alaric, I killed him tonight and his mate Josephine got away. There's no telling what she might be planning. I've got to find her tomorrow."

"Hmm." Sam looked at her carefully. "That's a good point, but what if what Arwen is true, then? She could possibly be foreseeing your death and if you go tomorrow, then you could be walking right into a trap."

"I can't sit around waiting for a trap, Sam. Especially when they might threaten my four-year-old. Don't think that I don't know that it might come true. I've known that my death is inevitable for years."

Sam sighed, nodding miserably. "It's a miracle that you've survived this long," he observed quietly. "And I, as a dutiful Watcher, will sit back and watch you die."

Gwyneth frowned at his tone. "Don't even think about following me tomorrow night," she warned him.

"I'm appalled that you would even suggest such a thing. Do you really think I would something like that?"

"Yes." Gwyneth stood up, shaking her head in amusement and exhaustion. "Because if I do die, then I need to know that my daughter will be well prepared for whatever might come for her. I want her to be well taken care of. And I don't trust the Council enough to let them know about her, let alone trust them with my kid."

Sam's expression softened. "I'm honoured that you would trust me with Arwen, Gwyneth, but you're my Slayer. I won't just sit back while you might be fighting for your life."

"And I'm not going to let you risk your life on the battlefield, old man."

--

Gwyneth ducked through the cemeteries, breathing in the sweet scent of the cool night as she kept an eye out for Josephine. The redheaded vampire had abandoned her mate in the heat of battle and left him to die. If there was one thing that she knew about vampires, it was that they did not abandon their mates, not to death.

So she needed to find out why Josephine did.

And she needed to kill her.

In that order.

It had been difficult to get out of the house tonight, mostly because Arwen kept crying and begging her not to go. Gwyneth had found it hard to resist her daughter's big blue eyes filled with tears and looking at her imploringly, but put her foot down, promising that she would be back soon.

Was Sam right? Could Arwen become a Slayer one day, changing the face of the Slayer line forever? Two Slayers instead of one? The Chosen Two, destined to fight against evil?

It was altogether too unbelievable. Gwyneth walked through the cemetery, ducking behind an oak tree as she saw the dark red hair of Josephine and peered out to look at the centuries old demon. She was talking to a younger vampire with blond hair, their words too quiet for her to hear.

But after a minute, Josephine nodded and gestured for the vampire to lead her somewhere. Gwyneth waited for them to get a good distance ahead of them before she started to follow, heading through the cemetery and up a couple of side streets before they entered in an old abandoned factory.

"Okay, that looks like a trap," Gwyneth muttered. But that didn't stop her from heading towards the factory, taking the back entrance and closing the door quietly behind her, staking the vampire that was standing guard there as she passed by him.

Quietly, she walked on the walkway overhead, hiding behind some canisters as she looked down at Josephine and the blond, who were waiting for something.

Or someone.

Finally, Josephine looked up, in full demonic face, her fangs glinting in the weak light as her yellow eyes focused on the place where Gwyneth was hiding. "Did you really think that you could hide from us, Slayer?" she asked with a laugh. "Come on down, join the party!"

Laughter erupted around them as Gwyneth whirled around just in time to see two vampires behind her before a third one arrived, knocking her out from behind.

When Gwyneth woke, she was chained to the wall and she felt weak, drained, exhausted. Not to mention, she felt blood escaping from her neck.

Josephine was standing there, her red hair tossed back as she smirked down at Gwyneth. "Is that what Alaric felt, do you think, when you destroyed him?" she queried. "Do you think he felt so weak and exhausted, when you turned him into dust? What do you think your daughter's going to feel, when I feed off of her?"

"You won't touch her!" Gwyneth hissed, blue eyes blazing. The vampires around her laughed. "I swear, if you lay a hand on her, I will hunt you down. I will hunt you down and I will kill you . . . even if it means . . . coming back from the dead. And do not think for one minute that I won't find a way to do that."

Josephine's smug expression flickered for a second and she considered Gwyneth quietly. "Do you think that we're going to hurt her? Don't be ridiculous, Slayer. We're not going to hurt her. We're going to raise her. Think of it; a Slayer fighting for vampires. We'll be infamous."

Gwyneth spat directly into Josephine's face. The redhead vampire just wiped the spittle off before she smirked. "That was a very big mistake, Slayer," she said smoothly. "And now . . ." Her pretty features turned back into the demonic one. "It's over for you."

Weak and exhausted and drained as she was, there was no way that Gwyneth could fight her off as Josephine sank her fangs into her flesh. With a scream, Gwyneth struggled to wriggle away, but the vampire held her in place, draining her of her blood.

Then, suddenly, miraculously, she pulled away and ducked as Sam appeared out of nowhere and charged at Josephine, a wooden stake in his hand as he ducked, managing to take down two of the vampires before a third one tackled him, knocking the stake out of his hands.

"Sam!" Gwyneth yelled, fighting desperately to break free now, but there was nothing she could do as Sam fought them, his eyes determined as he fought back, but one human, even a Watcher, against twenty vampires was not a desirable scenario.

Closing her eyes, Gwyneth looked away from the scene as Sam was drained of his blood and fell to the ground, dead before he hit it. Josephine stood up, walking back over to her and gripping Gwyneth's head so that there was no way to escape.

As Josephine's fangs sank into her flesh for a third time and Gwyneth felt her blood leaving her, she looked towards the ceiling and begged to whatever higher power was listening to protect her daughter.

So long as her daughter was kept safe, she would accept her death. As long as Arwen was safe, she would accept her fate.

--

Arwen sat curled up in her mother's closet, her breath coming out in soft quavers as she retreated even further. Uncle Sam had left her some time ago, telling her to lock the door behind her and not to open the door to anyone, not to invite anyone in that she didn't know.

Tears were sliding down her face; she knew he had gone to help her mommy. She had gone out, even though Arwen knew something was going to happen to her. She had seen in her dreams, seen her mother as they held her captive and then killed her.

Was Uncle Sam gonna die too? Was she gonna be left all alone? What was going to happen to her? Arwen wrapped her arms around the stuffed cat that her mother gave her, burying her face into it.

Hearing footsteps downstairs, Arwen froze fearfully. Her mother's footsteps were light and graceful, like a ballerina's. Uncle Sam's were quick and rapid, always preparing for something. These were quiet and careful, but heavier than her mother's. Arwen closed her eyes as they entered into the bedroom and stopped at the closet.

Pressing herself further against the wall, Arwen closed her eyes fearfully, terrified of who was standing outside of the closet as it opened.

But instead of a monster or something evil, there was a young man standing there. Actually, he looked more like a homeless person, with his clothes hanging around him, his eyes tired and hungry, but filled with kindness and understanding.

"Hey, it's okay," he assured her, seeing the fear in her eyes. "I'm gonna help you."

"Mama and Uncle Sam—"

"I know," he assured her. "I know. Arwen—it is Arwen, isn't it?" he asked her and she nodded. "I need to get you away from here. It's not safe for you right now, okay? Right now, you need to trust me, okay? I'm gonna get you somewhere safe."

Although hesitant and remembering her mother's warning not to trust anyone she didn't know, Arwen peered up into his soulful brown eyes and grasped his offered hand and he helped her out of the closet, scooping her up into his arms.

Clutching her stuffed animal to her, Arwen pressed her face into his chest as he raced out of the house and into the night, speeding away faster than she thought possible, faster than Mommy.

Arwen heard howls in the distance, filled with rage, and she reached out, gripping the stranger's jacket tightly and he held her tighter to him. "It's okay, Arwen," he assured her. "I've got you, you're safe. I'm gonna take you somewhere safe, all right?"

"Where's safe?" Arwen wanted to know, looking up at him with her blue eyes wide.

He gave a small, half-smile. "I don't know," he acknowledged. "But somewhere that's not here."

"Where's Mommy?" Arwen asked him, playing with the threads on her nightgown. "Where's Uncle Sam?" He closed his eyes, looking down, unable to answer her. "Are they dead?"

For a minute, he just looked at her and then he gave a small nod. "Yes," he whispered. "They are."

Arwen felt tears sliding down her cheeks and she buried her head into his chest, not wanting him to see the tears as he raced across the rooftops, jumping from place to place. And maybe if she were just a little bit older, than maybe she would've understood why he was able to do that. But she was only four and she was filled with grief.

When she finally looked up, he was setting her on the steps of a children's home, shrugging off his jacket and wrapping it around her to keep out the cold.

"Stay here, Arwen," he instructed her. "Go up the stairs and knock on the door. Tell the lady that works here that you don't have anywhere to go. She'll take care of you. Don't give her your real name, it's not safe."

"Wait!" Arwen called after him as he was about to vanished into the night. "What's your name?"

He looked back at her. "Angel," he replied. And then he was gone.


	2. Twelve Years Later

**Chosen by Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Two: Twelve Years Later . . .

A young girl with long brown hair climbed out of a car, hoisting her backpack higher onto her shoulder as she glanced back at the woman who was in the driver's seat, her blue eyes vivid and bright as they met the woman's grey ones.

"Have a good day, Aria," the woman said in a forced tone. "And don't cause any trouble."

Aria Sawyer nodded once, not answer her foster mother as Nancy Carlisle put the Jeep into drive and headed out of the high school parking lot, getting back on the highway as she headed for work. With a small sigh, Aria watched her go before looking back at Sunnydale High, heading into the building as she weaved her way almost effortlessly through the crowd.

Twelve years had passed since Aria had been rescued from her home in the dead of night by the mysterious young man named Angel and since then, she had been shoved in and out of foster homes, who all decided that there was something unnatural about her, something that they couldn't explain, but they could somehow sense.

Finally, just last week, Nancy had become her foster mother and she had, once again, been forced to start at a new school. Not that it bothered her much; going to new schools was fantastic. If she just messed up, then she could just move away and start again.

But it looked like this one was going to stick. Nancy had told her as long as she didn't get into any trouble and stayed out of her way, then she wasn't going to send her back. Aria wasn't going to have any problems with her on the second one, but the first one? She didn't go looking for trouble . . . it was just that trouble usually found her.

Her rescuer that night her life had changed and she'd lost her family forever had told her that it wasn't safe to use her real name, so she'd stuck as close to it as she could, changing Arwen to Aria and Seymour to Sawyer had been simple enough and easy to remember. And now, twelve years later, it was hard to remember that her name had once been Arwen.

Of her mother, she only remembered a little bit about her. She remembered that she was very beautiful, kind but sad. And she had been killed, murdered by a redheaded woman. Aria had seen it in her dreams before her mother had died and since then. She didn't know how she was able to see it; she just knew that it was real and she was reliving her mother's last moments in those dreams.

So caught up was Aria in her thoughts that she barely noticed where she was going, not until she collided with someone head on, sending both of them into the floor.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," Aria apologised as she helped the blonde up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm, uh, bleeding internally, but I'll live," she said, but from her smile, Aria realised that the girl was joking. "You're new around here, aren't you?" she asked, looking at her curiously.

"Uh . . . yeah," Aria admitted. "I'm Aria Sawyer."

"I'm Buffy Summers," the blonde told her. Aria fought a smile at the girl's strange name, but then again, who was she to judge people by their names? Her mother had named her after a Lord of the Rings character. "I was new last year. Did you need some help getting to your class?"

Aria let out a slow breath of relief. "Thank you," she said in appreciation before looking down at her schedule. "I've got Mrs. Winters for English first thing."

"That's where I'm at, follow me," Buffy instructed and Aria obediently fell in line behind her. "So where'd you move from?"

"Which time?" Aria groaned. At Buffy's puzzled look, she elaborated. "I've had about twelve different foster parents, sixteen different schools, in about fourteen different cities. The last one was in San Francisco."

Buffy let out a low whistle. "That's gotta suck," she acknowledged. "When I moved here last year, my parents had just split up. But it's a pretty okay school, at least during the daytime," she added more quietly.

For a minute, Aria thought she misunderstood her, but when she saw Buffy's expression, she knew that she hadn't and for a minute, she glanced sideways at her, wondering what she meant by that.

"Buffy!" Aria glanced around as a redheaded girl and a goofy-looking guy approached them, both of them looking at Aria appraisingly.

"Hey, guys, this is Aria," Buffy introduced. "Aria, this is Willow and Xander. She just moved here," she explained as they walked into the class. Aria obediently took one of the seats next to Buffy, somehow sensing that she was gonna be more accepting to her than the other two. She wasn't sure what it was, but something just connected her to the blonde.

It was as though some ancient, unknown power that they both shared linked the two of them together. Aria shivered at the power of it, wondering if Buffy sensed it too, but if she did, she didn't say anything. She just gave Aria a nice, welcoming smile as class began and Aria started to wonder if there was more going on in this town than she had originally thought.

--

Aria walked through the streets of Sunnydale that night, her brown hair falling around her shoulders as she walked towards the centre of town. Nancy had practically pushed her out the door, saying that she needed to get some work done and she couldn't do it while Aria was at home.

And Aria was pretty sure that the work she was doing had nothing to do with the office. More like she was at home, entertaining her boyfriend. Aria had only met the man once, but had immediately decided that the man was a complete and total pig.

Her footsteps clattered against the quiet streets as she walked through the cemetery. It was quicker to get to town that way, anyway. Aria was about halfway through the cemetery when she became aware that there was someone following her.

Pausing briefly, Aria glanced behind her, looking around to try and see where her pursuer was, but there was no sign of them. Taking a deep breath to try and calm herself, she turned back around and began walking faster.

"'I've got work to do, get out of this house, Aria,'" she muttered to herself, mocking her foster mother. "Yeah, great idea, Nancy. This is exactly how Lifetime movies are made. Girl walking around in a cemetery by herself at night."

Slipping her hand into her pocket, Aria removed the pepper spray that she had in there, gripping it tightly in her hand as she looked over her shoulder again. She could've sworn that she saw a flash of platinum blond hair as she hurried forward, biting her lip anxiously before she finally turned around.

"Okay, enough of this," she said loudly, looking around the cemetery. "I know you're there, so why don't you just come out or quit following me, because I'm getting really annoyed here."

"Well, wishes just happen to be horses today," a British voice said from behind her and she spun around, accurately punching the blond guy in the jaw before taking a defensive position, her fists curled into balls. "Ow . . . jeez, you know, for a girl, you can really pack a punch."

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"Name's Spike," he drawled as his face twisted into ridges and fangs. Aria sucked in her breath, her eyes going wide as she saw it. "And as for what I want . . . well, simple enough. I'm hungry." As he lunged at her, Aria dived out of the way, striking at him, really hoping that someone came along to help her, because she wasn't sure that she was going to be able to take this guy down.

Especially considering that he was blocking every one of her punches and delivering some of his own, sending her to the ground.

Aria groaned as she got back to her feet, wiping some blood out from the corner of her mouth as she looked at the blond, wondering not for the first time what he was. Not to be egotistical, but it had been a long time since she had not been able to defend herself. Guys tried to pick her up all the time and wouldn't take no for an answer. She learned really quick that punching a guy in the nose made them get the message.

But this guy was really fast and just as strong as she was, which she really didn't understand. She was a lot stronger than most guys, she knew, but she never really understood why. It wasn't like she really had any self-defence classes or anything, besides a couple of lessons from a couple guys at the children's shelter. Aria never really knew why or how she was able to defend herself so easily.

Just as she was knocked to the ground again, Aria clutched her side painfully, looking back up at the blond, who was laughing.

"All right, you're making this really fun, girlie," he said joyfully. "It's been awhile since I've had a meal that fought back. You're holding yourself up pretty well. I'm impressed. It's too bad, though . . . this has gone on long enough."

Before he could even move towards her neck, however, someone grabbed the blond and yanked him away from Aria easily, throwing him away from her.

"Get out of here, Spike," he warned her. Aria frowned; something about the dark-haired guy's voice seemed very familiar to her, as though she had heard it somewhere before. "Leave her alone."

"I thought you already had one girl, Peaches," the newly dubbed Spike drawled. "Anyway, she's a bit fun to play with. Maybe I'll see her around sometime and leave your Slayer alone for awhile. Won't that be nice?"

"You won't touch either of them." Spike only laughed as he launched himself into the air and vanished from sight.

Aria was still gasping for breath, clutching her side as her rescuer looked around at her, something flickering behind his eyes as he walked towards her.

"Are you all right?" he asked, holding out his hand to help her up and she flinched away. "Whoa, relax, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

Eyeing him suspiciously for a minute, Aria finally accepted his help and got to her feet, looking to where Spike had vanished. "Who was that guy?" she wanted to know as she leaned against one of the tombstones to catch her breath. "What was he?"

"Believe me, you're better off not knowing," he assured her. "But you shouldn't be walking in cemeteries alone at night. It can be pretty dangerous." He looked back at her. "You should get home."

Aria rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I would, but my foster mom kind of kicked me out for awhile. She doesn't want me there when she's got her boyfriend over. I was just going to town, see if I could find someplace to hang out for a couple of hours, until it's safe to go home."

"It's always safer at home than anywhere else in this town at night," he told her, but seemed to understand her dilemma. "Come on, I'll take you to town." He gestured her ahead of him and she frowned at him.

"I don't go anywhere with strange guys in the middle of cemeteries without knowing their name," she informed him. He actually smiled at that.

"Angel," he told her.

Aria frowned at his name. "I used to know someone named that," she said slowly, her mind flashing back to the day that her mother had died, when the mysterious Angel had taken her to the shelter, telling her she'd be safe there. "I'm Aria."

"Pleasure to meet you," he said politely, having the courtesy to shake her hand before he gestured again, letting her lead the way out of the cemetery. She noticed how he glanced back towards where Spike had disappeared before he followed her, though.

Neither one of them talked as they walked through the quiet streets towards town. "So . . . you make it a habit of walking through cemeteries to rescue girls in trouble?" she wanted to know, shoving her hands into her pockets as she glanced sideways at Angel.

He shrugged. "I was just out walking, heard the commotion and thought maybe you could use a hand. Luckily, I got there in time," he added seriously.

"Yeah, thankfully," she said quietly before looking at him gratefully. "Thank you . . . for saving my life."

"You're welcome." Angel glanced up as they finally arrived in town. "Okay, so you should be all right as long as you stick to crowds, just . . . don't go anywhere alone. I don't know if he's going to come back or night."

"You mean Spike?" she asked and he raised an eyebrow. "I heard you call him that."

He nodded, looking serious. "Yeah. And the next time that you meet him, run. Don't try and fight him. Run and scream for help. Because I might not be around next time. And trust me, there is always a next time with him and others like him."

Aria swallowed, frightened by his words as well as by the look in his brown eyes. "I'll be careful," she said quietly.

"Good." Angel seemed satisfied as he straightened and walked away. "I'll see you around . . . Arwen."

It took a minute for Aria to realise what exactly he had called her and when she realised it, he had already vanished as though the night had swallowed him up.

She stared where he had disappeared, bewildered and shocked. "How did he know that name?" she whispered.


	3. Revelations

**Chosen by Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Three: Revelations

Angel walked briskly through the halls of the high school, already sensing Buffy inside, no doubt talking to Giles about the latest on demonic activity and the resident evil resident, Spike. But right now, he was more worried about the young brunette girl that Spike had his eyes on than he was about Spike himself.

He should've known.

He should've known from the minute that he saw her fighting Spike who she was. Who else could she have been? Angel had only seen the Slayer briefly twelve years previously, but the young teenager that he had seen only a few minutes before had been the exact image of her, from the bright blue eyes that stared innocently up at him to the long curly brown hair.

Arwen Seymour had finally come to the hellmouth. Angel knew that it was a possibility, even a probability, but he had never really put his thoughts on it until just a few minutes ago. There was no mistaking who the girl was, especially after the way that she reacted when he had said her real name.

Secretly, Angel was glad that she had listened to him, even though she'd only been four, and not given the shelter he delivered her to her real name. It wasn't an uncommon name and Josephine probably could've tracked her down all too easily. The redheaded vampire had some sick and twisted plans for Arwen—or Aria, as she now called herself—and Angel worried about her.

But what was more important was that she seemed to have inherited her mother's powers. No Slayer before Gwyneth Seymour had ever had a child, especially after she was called and especially a daughter. No one had known what would happen to the girl when she had grown up, which was why the Council had remained blissfully ignorant of her existence.

However, if what he had seen earlier was any indication of what her powers were like, then Angel had to guess that she possessed every one of the Slayer powers that her mother had. Gwyneth had unknowingly changed the lineage of the Slayers for all time when she had given birth to a daughter.

She had given the world two protectors. One was the daughter of a Slayer who possessed her own supernatural gifts that were not unlike her mother's. And the other was the Slayer, the one who had been called each and every time.

Buffy.

Suppressing a small sigh, Angel walked towards the library, hearing voices inside, and Angel pushed the door open, making himself known as he cleared his throat.

Not unsurprisingly, Giles looked nervous upon seeing the vampire in his library, but Buffy looked happy to see him, even got up and gave him a kiss of greeting. "Hey," she said softly. "What are you doing here?"

"I needed to talk to you two about something," he explained as he guided his girl back over to the table a chairs before looking at Giles. "Spike was out on the prowl tonight, about to feed off a girl. The thing is, this girl was managing to hold her own pretty well. Almost like . . ." He trailed off, looking at Buffy.

"Almost like me," she guessed and he nodded.

"You probably know her, she looked about your age. Her name's Aria."

Giles frowned. "I don't think that I've heard that name before," he said slowly, but Buffy's eyes widened in understanding.

"Yeah, well, she just started here today, Giles," she explained. "I talked to her a little. She's seems nice enough, but shy. Probably has something to do with being shoved in and out of foster homes her entire life." Angel was surprised; that was what had happened to her? No wonder she didn't have any problems with not going home. "So, what do we think? Is it possible that there's another Slayer out there?"

"It's not happened, not to my knowledge, anyway," Giles answered, cleaning his glasses as he frowned. "The next Slayer is only called when the previous Slayer has died."

"That's not what happened, I don't think," Angel said quietly. They both looked at him and Angel sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets as he began to pace, not sure where to begin. Finally, he looked at Giles. "What do you know about a Slayer named Gwyneth Seymour?"

"Gwyneth Seymour?" Giles echoed, frowning in remembrance. "Oh, yes, a . . . a North Carolina Slayer. She was killed approximately twelve years ago, along with her Watcher Samuel Wyatt. It was a great loss to the Council. She was one of the longest surviving Slayers and Wyatt was one of the most knowledgeable members of the Council."

"They were both killed by a vampire named Josephine," Angel added to Buffy. "She wanted them out of the way because Gwyneth had something that was of great value to Josephine."  
"What was that?" Buffy wanted to know.

Angel paused. "A daughter," he answered. "Gwyneth had a daughter."

For a long moment, they both stared at him, astonishment written in their every features. Angel felt his heart rise in his chest as he saw Buffy's expression. Even astonished and amazed with her mouth slightly open, she was still beautiful.

Pushing that thought out of his mind, Angel returned to his tale. "Gwyneth named her Arwen and for a long time, no one suspected that the little girl living with her was actually her daughter, mostly because no Slayer has ever had a child before."

"But this Josephine found out?" Buffy finally said, finding her voice at long last.

"Yeah, she found out. And she was intrigued by the idea of a Slayer having a daughter and even more interested in what powers the girl might have when she grew up. So she hired several other vampires, offering them a Slayer's blood in order to get to the girl, raise her until she was old enough to be turned. Or killed, if it turned out that she didn't have any powers."

"And so Gwyneth was killed because they were after her child," Giles breathed. "But I don't understand how this Aria could possibly be Arwen. How could she have possibly survived?"

Angel took a deep breath. "Because I saved her," he answered. Giles stared at him and Buffy blinked. "I was there that night and I overheard some vampires talking about what was going to happen. I tried to get there in time to save Gwyneth, but there were too many of them and it was already too late. So I went to try and save Arwen instead.

"I found her hiding in a closet, frightened out of her mind and scared for her mother and her mom's Watcher. She let me take her out of there and I took her to a children's shelter, hoping that she'd be safe there. She was only four at the time, but she seemed to understand the danger that she was in and I told her to change her name. Arwen was too uncommon; it wouldn't have taken Josephine long to track her down. And I guess she must've changed her name from Seymour to something else . . . she didn't tell me her last name tonight."

"It's Sawyer," Buffy answered. "And that's not that far away from Seymour. Close enough to remember, but different enough not to track."

Giles shook his head as he stood up, looking excited but shocked at the same time. "Daughter of a Slayer," he whispered. "Of course, that would explain it. Since no Slayer in history—that we know of, anyway—has had a child, there would be no telling how much of the Slayer powers she has."

"If Spike gets to her, then you might not get the chance to find out," Angel said grimly. "Right now, I think we need to tell her something. She deserves to know about her past . . . and how exactly her mother died." He looked down. "I owe her that."

"Angel," Buffy said gently, "you couldn't have done anything different to save her mother. You did the best you could."

"Still, I feel like I owe it to her," Angel said softly. "I'm gonna follow her, make sure she gets home all right."

Buffy nodded in agreement. "Yes, do that and then tomorrow, we'll bring her here and talk to her, figure out something to tell her."

--

It was no problem tracking Aria down. She was still downtown, wandering through the crowded streets, looking lost in thought. Angel kept a close watch on her, not letting her out of his sight.

He thought maybe she sensed him following her, judging from the way that her eyes looked behind her, searching through the crowd every once in awhile, but she just shook her head, as though to clear it before melting further into the crowd.

It was around midnight before she finally changed directions and headed in the direction of her house. Her walk was cautious as she was paying attention to every little thing, looking around to make sure no one was following her—even though one was, just not for the reasons that she thought. Angel kept his distance, enough to keep her in sight, but far away enough so she wouldn't see him.

Angel watched her as she climbed up the steps to her house and her blue eyes swept the empty streets again. Aria frowned in annoyance, but just shook her head again as she climbed up the steps, entering the house and to safety.

Releasing a small sigh of relief, Angel was about to head back to the library to inform Buffy and Giles that she had made it home all right when he heard raised voices and he looked back at her house, edging ever so closer to peer in the window.

There was a tall, redheaded woman standing in front of the window, her expression one of annoyance and irritation as she stood in front of Aria, arms folded across her chest.

"I told you that I didn't want to be bothered tonight and I had work to do," she was saying angrily. "That does not mean that you can just come back here any time that you feel like it! I swear, it's no wonder that you're in so much trouble at all of your schools if you can't listen to what people are telling you!"

Aria just stared at the ground. "I'm sorry."

"You should be. Now you've completely ruined my night and I am sick and tired of your attitude. Get upstairs and get to bed! And don't even think about coming out until morning, because I swear, I'm not going to tolerate any more of this."

Angel watched as Aria headed upstairs without another word and a second later, he heard a door close behind her. Rage filled through him as he saw how the woman who was supposed to take care of her was actually treating her. From what he had seen, she was a nice and caring girl; she didn't deserve to be treated like this.

Her foster mother shook her head as Aria vanished, her eyes drifting to someone behind her and she smiled greedily as a man appeared from behind her, looking just as happy as she did.

"You just have to keep her here for a few more days," the man said smoothly. "In a few more days, Josephine will arrive and she'll take care of the girl. It's a wonder that she's managed to survive for this long."

"Josephine gave me her word that she would pay me well for this," the woman said smoothly, raising one of her delicate eyebrows. The man smiled as he handed her a thick wallet. She opened it, revealing at least a couple thousand dollars in hundreds.

"This will do," she said smoothly as she placed the wallet in a purse lying on the table. "And you can be sure that I won't be involved in this? After all, I do have a reputation to protect. I can't have that girl's tragic death on my hands."

"You have my word and Josephine's that you will not be held accountable for the girl's outcome. After all, how many children have been killed in this town?"

The woman gave a smile that was pure evil. Angel's heart clenched as he saw it, realising that neither one of them were human. He couldn't smell it because they were inside and there were all kinds of scented candles lying around, blocking it out, but now that he thought about it, he could very well sense it. It was coming off of them in waves.

"Excellent," she said brightly.

Angel had heard enough; there was no way that he could just leave Aria here tonight, right in harm's way. If Josephine decided to show up unexpectedly tonight, then he would have no way to help her. But since she was living in a demon's home, he didn't need an invitation to get inside.

Glancing up, Angel made a couple of jumps, landing silently on the roof before carefully making his way across the roof until he was sitting just outside of a teenage girls room.

Sure enough, Aria was sitting there, her brown hair falling around her face as she held a pad of paper in front of her, a pencil poised as she traced something on the paper, her blue eyes fixed upon it until they suddenly shot up, searching the room until they collided with Angel.

And she stared at him, unknowingly, in the image of her mother.

Slowly, she got to her feet, walking over to the window and opening it up to frown at him sternly. "What are you doing here?"

"At first, I was just making sure that you made it home all right," Angel confessed, sitting on the roof's edge, steadying himself. "Then I was listening to your foster mother's conversation with her friend downstairs and realised that I wasn't about to leave you here."

Aria sighed. "Angel, I can take care of myself—"

Reaching out, Angel clamped his hand over her mother, silencing her words. Aria stared at him in shock and amazement. "Aria," he whispered urgently, "listen to me. You are not among friends." She stared at him, cocking her head. "I need you to come with me; I need to get you somewhere safe. Do you understand me?" Aria considered him for a long moment and then she nodded. He let go of her. "Come on, we have to go."

"I have to get a few things," she said softly. Angel nodded and she stepped back, heading around the room. He tried to climb inside, but was barred by the old, familiar barrier.

For a minute, he didn't understand why he would be barred; this was a demon's house, why would he—

Then it hit him. While Aria's foster mom wasn't human, Aria definitely was and he couldn't enter her bedroom without invitation.

So he waited patiently at the window while she snatched up a bag, shoving a few articles of clothing into it, a few books, the pad she had been working on when he had been spying on her, and a few knickknacks from around the room. Once this was all in the bag, she zipped it up, looking at him.

"All right, I'm ready, but once we're out of here, I want an explanation," she informed him.

"Fait enough." Angel helped her climb out of the window and onto the roof. "Think you can climb down? I can carry you if you can't."

"I'll be fine," she told him, balancing herself on the roof. Angel nodded, leaping to the ground and landing on his feet. Aria stared at him in amazement before she climbed down, less elegantly than he had, but with the style and grace of the Slayers.

When she was on the ground, Angel took her bag for her, leading her away from the house and towards the school.


	4. Her Mother's Legacy

**Chosen by Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Four: Her Mother's Legacy

Walking alongside Angel in the dead of night, Aria stared at the ground in front of her, not sure if she should really be doing this. On the one hand, Angel had saved her life from that creep earlier, but on the other hand, she didn't even know him. Should she really trust his word that she was in danger at her own house?

Never mind the fact that she didn't particularly like or trust her foster mother. It was the point that she was trusting Angel when she barely even knew him.

Or maybe it was because he knew her real name. Aria didn't know why she trusted him; she just knew that she was safer with him than she was with Nancy. She always gave her the creeps, ever since the second that she stepped into that woman's presence.

"You said you were gonna give me an explanation," Aria finally broke the silence between them. She glanced sideways at Angel expectantly and noticed his expression. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he sighed. "It's a long story. But there's someone who can probably explain it better than I can."

"Where are we going?"

"Sunnydale High," Angel answered immediately. "My girlfriend and the librarian are there now."

So he had a girlfriend, she thought, visibly relaxing. Well, that threw out that he was some weirdo stalker who was just saving her life so he could get a shot at getting into her bed. Somehow, that made her feel better and she fell into a much more relaxed position as she walked. "Who's your girlfriend?"

"Buffy Summers. She said that she knew you or at least met you today." Aria nodded, remembering the blonde. She seemed like Angel's type; they both had that hero vibe going on.

"Yeah, I remember. She's seems nice," Aria said as she played with the strands on her jacket when they finally reached the high school. "Okay, just curious, are we supposed to be here this late? Isn't this breaking and entering?"

Angel gave her a wry smile as he opened the door for her. "One thing you need to know: it's hardly the cops that you need to worry about in this town. There are far more dangerous things when night falls around here."

"So much for the nice warm welcome," Aria muttered as she headed into the school and Angel led her straight to the library. Sure enough, Buffy was sitting at one of the tables, along with the librarian that Aria had seen earlier. Both of them looked up as they entered.

"Hey, Aria," Buffy said brightly as she stood up to greet her. "I'm glad that Angel found you. Are you okay?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," Aria said as she looked between the three of them. "I think I would feel a lot better if someone would explain to me just what is going on around here."

Buffy raised an eyebrow and then turned to look at her boyfriend. "What exactly happened? I thought we were going to discuss this tomorrow."

"We were, until I realised her foster mom was a demon."

Aria rolled her eyes at his words. "Like I said before, I can take care of myself and Nancy may be a piece of word, but I think demon is taking a little . . ." She trailed off as the other three exchanged looks. "When you say 'demon,' that's . . . that's not . . . you don't mean that as a metaphor, do you?"

The librarian, Mr. Giles, stood up from where he had been sitting at the desk and walked over to join them. "Miss Sawyer," he began, "this world is older than you know. And contrary to popular belief, it never began as a paradise."

Aria stared, her mind spinning. Something about this seemed very familiar and was tugging on something old in her mind, something very far back, from her childhood, a long time ago. "So, it . . . it was what, hell?"

"Not to far away from it," Giles assured her. "It was overrun by demons, known as the Old Ones. For unknown ages, they walked the earth until they lost their hold on this reality and the way was made for mortal animals, for man. They then fled the earth and the last one to leave fed off a human, mixing his blood with theirs, resulting in the first vampire."

"Vampire?" Aria repeated slowly, her mind spinning at this revelation before realisation set in and she spun around to look at Angel. "That guy that attacked me earlier, Spike . . . he was a vampire?"

"Yes," Angel agreed and he and Buffy exchanged a quick look before he gave a small shake of his head. "He was."

"Okay." Aria shook her head, trying to take in all of this. "Not that this isn't really fascinating, but what exactly does any of this have to do with me? Besides the fact that my foster mom happens to be a demon," she added dryly.

"What do you remember about your real mother?" Angel asked her quietly, his brown gaze fixated on her.

Aria stilled, her blood chilling. "My mom? I . . . I remember just little things. The way that her face lit up when she smiled. How she would twirl me around the room when she got home. The sound of her voice when she would sing me to sleep. Her hands as they would tuck me in . . ." Aria trailed off, realising how her voice trembled and she looked up at Angel, a bit angry for him asking that personal question and angrier at herself for answering it. "Why are you asking me about my mom? She died a long time ago."

"We know," Giles said, not unkindly. "Gwyneth Seymour was your mother, wasn't she?"

Aria wasn't sure what startled her more: the fact that he knew her birth mother's name or the fact that he knew who she was. All the same, she jumped to her feet, backing away from them.

"Okay, how do you know that?" she demanded, her voice trembling slightly. "Why are you asking questions about my mother? I barely even remember her!"

"Aria," Buffy said urgently, moving forward and grabbing her hands. "It may seem hard to believe, but we're actually friends. We're trying to help you."

For a minute, Aria looked at her, then at Angel, and then finally settled on Giles. And she gave a small nod; they were trying to help her. She could see it in their eyes. "All right," she said quietly. "But could somebody please explain why demons are suddenly after me and what exactly I need your help on? Because I'm still in the dark here."

"As long as there have been vampires, there has been the Slayer," Giles said, picking up his tale again. "One girl in all of the world, a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer."

"He loves doing this part," Buffy said dryly to Aria, who chuckled.

Giles gave her a disapproving look, but he smiled. "Buffy is the Slayer. And so was your mother," he added gently. Aria stared at him in astonishment. "Gwyneth was one of the most powerful Slayers in history. And twelve years ago, she was killed, along with her Watcher Samuel Wyatt."

"Uncle Sam," Aria breathed, a flash of memory sweeping across her mind as the name was spoken. A tall, blond man always accompanied by a book. For hours on end, he would sit her down in his library and read to her, telling her tales of long past events. "I remember him." She closed her eyes. "The night that my mother died . . . he left me at home alone. Told me to lock the door behind him and not to let anybody in that I didn't know."

"Do you remember how you got out?" Angel asked her quietly.

Aria nodded as she slowly sat down. "Yeah, some guy got me out," she said quietly. "The guy I told you about earlier, Angel. He . . . he came into my house and found me in my mom's closet and he took me away, to the shelter. He said I would be safe there, so long as I didn't use my real name."

"Why Aria?" Buffy asked, curious.

She shrugged. "My mom called me that sometimes. But I . . . I still don't understand. Why would the fact that my mother was a Slayer be any reason that demons are after me?"

"Because as far as we know, there's only been one Slayer who ever produced a child," Angel explained. "And that was your mother."

Aria stared and slowly leaned back in her chair, trying to comprehend all of this. "Oh, gods," she muttered.

"The reason why demons are after you is because no Slayer has ever had a child, much less a daughter. A daughter could very well inherit all of her mother's strengths and talents or she could just have a few of them. There would be no way to tell. And they want to end the possible threat before you became too powerful to stop."

Glancing at him, Aria sighed. "Is that just a nice way of saying that they want to kill me?"

"Yes," Buffy and Angel answered together.

Aria considered her options. On the one hand, she could just sit around and wait for the so-called demons to attack her and most likely get what they want and kill her. Or . . . she could do something about it. She could fight back.

"Well, there's always a fork in the road, isn't there?" she asked softly. "And you never know which one is the right one to take, not until it's too late. But sometimes, by then, it's already too late to turn back." She jumped off the table, placing her hands on her hips. "So, how do I fight them?"

"_You_ don't," Buffy said firmly, standing up to face her down. "I do. I'm the Slayer, that's my job is to keep people safe."

"Well, it might have escaped your notice, but I've got as pretty good claim to the title too," Aria pointed out. "I might have gotten it a different way than you, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna sit back and let you do all the work. I'm not just gonna sit around and let people fight my battles for me. Don't ask me to do that." She looked at Buffy straight in the eye, both Slayers fighting the other's will. "So teach me how not to die."

"No, you still have the chance to have some normality in your life, to escape all of this," Buffy insisted.

Aria smiled. "But that's not your choice to make," she pointed out. "It's my life, Summers. I get to make the choice as to what I want to do with it. So guess what? I'm deciding." She folded her arms across her chest defiantly. "And I'm going to do this with or without your help. But without will probably get me killed." Aria looked at her to see if any of this was sinking in, if she was seeing Aria's point.

Buffy heaved a sigh and looked at Giles helplessly. The librarian gave a small smile of amusement at the two Slayers' argument while Angel hid a smile behind his hand. "We'll start training tomorrow," he told Aria. "Right now, you should both get some sleep."

"Well, my foster mom's a demon, so I'm guessing I can't go home," Aria pointed out.

"You can crash at my place," Buffy told her, standing up. "Mom won't mind. Come on." Aria followed Buffy out of the library, picking up her bag and waving goodbye to Giles and Angel as she left.

--

"So Giles mentioned that Uncle Sam was Mom's Watcher," Aria commented as they walked through the empty streets of Sunnydale. "What exactly is a Watcher?"

"Pretty much what it sounds like, they watch," Buffy deadpanned. "Giles is my Watcher. They train Slayers, they research . . . Giles is actually pretty good in the book area. Has to be, I guess, when he's in the librarian." She paused. "I'm sorry about earlier. You're right, you have every right to decide whether or not you want in on this. It's just . . . sometimes, I wish I could have a normal life again."

"It's different for you," Aria pointed out as they walked up the sidewalk. "You've got a family, you've got parents. All I've got is a demon mom and a couple free movie passes." Buffy actually laughed as she unlocked the door and the girls moved quietly inside and Buffy closed the door behind them as Aria looked around at the nice house.

"Point taken. So let's go to my room and tomorrow, we'll—"

"BUFFY ANNE SUMMERS!"

Aria winced slightly as Buffy jumped to see a woman that looked like she could be her mother standing behind her. She had her hands on her hips and she did not look happy.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" she demanded angrily. "It's quarter past four, young lady. You should have been in bed hours ago! Do you have any idea what I felt when I found your bed empty? Did you think about what I thought when I found you were gone?"

"Mom, I was—"

"No, none of your excuses!" Mrs. Summers said angrily. "You get upstairs and get to your room right now, young lady, because you are so grounded, do you hear me?"

"It's my fault, Mrs. Summers," Aria intervened. Mrs. Summers jumped and looked around, seeing Aria standing there quietly. "Sorry, my name's Aria Sawyer, I just started at Buffy's school today and we hung out earlier. Then when I got home, my foster mom and I got in this fight and I got upset. Buffy found me crying in the park and we got to talking before she invited me to stay over here so I wouldn't have to go home. I'm sorry, we just lost track of the time. I was pretty upset."

Mrs. Summers just stood there for a full minute before looking at her daughter, her face a lot less strained. "You still could have called and told me what was going on," she said, her voice gentler, but still upset. "You could've saved me the heart attack I had when I saw you were gone."

"I'm sorry, Mom," Buffy said, not arguing with Aria's story. "But it's like Aria said, we just lost track of the time."

"It won't happen again, Mrs. Summers," Aria promised, crossing her fingers behind her back to make sure that Buffy's mom bought their story.

Evidentially, she did, because she released a small sigh, rubbing her forehead tiredly. "All right, well, I know that the both of you have school in a few hours, so you should both go upstairs and get some sleep. Aria, wasn't it?" she asked. She nodded. "I'll set up the couch for you."

"That's okay, I really don't mind the floor," Aria assured her. Mrs. Summers gave her a small smile as the two girls headed up to Buffy's room, closing the door behind her. "Wow, that was close."

"No kidding, she's never caught me sneaking out before," Buffy said dryly. "Thanks for the cover-up."

"Well, it wasn't far from the truth, was it?" Aria laughed as Buffy handed her a couple of blankets and a pillow. She barely had covered herself up with the blanket before her head hit the pillow and she fell fast asleep.


	5. Training

**Chosen by Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Five: Training

Aria groaned slightly as she turned on her side, blinking as the sunlight poured in through the window and she blinked up at it before looking around at her surroundings. For a full minute, she didn't remember where she was and then she saw Buffy still asleep on the bed above her and it all came back to her in a rush and she groaned again.

"Oh, man, that so was not a dream," she muttered darkly as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, running her hand through her hair. She released a slow breath as she got to her feet and plucked through her bag to retrieve a few clothes and headed into the bathroom to change.

By the time that she came out, Buffy was already up and dressed and making her bed. "So, ready for day one of Slayer training?" she asked wickedly. Aria chuckled as she brushed out her hair.

"Buffy, can I ask you something?" she asked and the blonde Slayer nodded. "I just . . . I can't help but get this feeling that I know your boyfriend from somewhere. It's like . . . I know him, but I can't really remember where I know him from, you know? It's just . . . it's weird. Has he said anything to you about meeting me before or anything?"

She could've sworn that she saw apprehension flash through Buffy's eyes as she asked that question. "Aria, I really think that you should ask Angel that question," she told her. "With Angel, it's . . . it's complicated and I honestly think that if he wants you to know, then he'll tell you." Aria rolled her eyes as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "But in the meantime, get ready for your first day as a Slayer, because it's not going to be easy. And don't expect me to go easy on you," she added with a grin.

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Aria said with a laugh. All the way to school, the two Slayers laughed and chatted and teased one another, almost like sisters. It was a nice feeling, Aria decided as she and Buffy headed into the school. "So, when are we gonna start training?"

"Look who's eager to get all of their normal life sucked away," Buffy joked.

"Hey, the sooner that I can start defending myself against you-know-what, then the sooner that I can stop hiding behind everybody else and using them as shields," Aria said dryly. "Forgive me, but it's just not my way."

"Totally get it," Buffy assured her. "Hey, Will, hey, Xander," she added as her two friends walked up behind the Slayers. "You guys remember Aria, don't you?" she added.

"Yeah, absolutely, nice to see you again," Willow said brightly before sending a curious look at Buffy while Xander mainly just stood there, grinning like an idiot at her.

"It's nice to see you too," Aria said, smiling back, not sure what to say. Did they know about Buffy's secret life or was she just supposed to shut her mouth about who they were?

"Guys, it's okay," Buffy commanded. "Relax. Everybody here knows everything. Well, not completely everything," she added, looking at the confused Willow and Xander. "Come on, let's get to the library and Giles can explain the whole thing."

Five minutes later, they were sitting in the library and Aria was flipping through some demonology books, trying very hard to ignore the fact that both Willow and Xander were gawking at her inconspicuously. She wished they would stop looking at her like she was an event at a carnival, but settled for staring determinedly at a grotesque picture of a demon.

"So let me get this straight," Xander said after a long minute. "Her mom was a Slayer, had Aria after she was Called, and so she's got all the freaky Slayer powers, so basically there's two Chosen Ones now?"

"Pretty much the gist of it," Buffy agreed. "Except we're not sure how many Slayer powers she's got."

"She's still in the room," Aria reminded them brightly. "What did the Council say?" she asked, looking over at Giles as he came back into the room, wiping his glasses on his tie.

"They only confirmed what we already knew," Giles answered shortly. "As far as they knew, no Slayer had ever had a child. I had to convince them very hard not to send a group of Watchers out here to come out and test you."

"How'd you do that?"

"I told them the truth. I said that you were still dealing with the fact that your mother was a Slayer and the demons were real and that once you had adapted better to the subject, then we could discuss the matter further, but I saw no reason why they needed to send someone out here when I could tell them what they need to know. And I hope that you haven't corrupted her view on the Council, Buffy," he added to the blonde Slayer, who hid a smile behind her hand.

"I plead to the fifth."

Giles rolled his eyes before looking at Aria. "While the Council may view things a different way than they do, they are not the enemy. They have far better research in headquarters than we will ever hope to have here. I do hope that you won't base your views purely on Buffy's thoughts."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aria said with a smile at her, but it immediately faded when she saw Nancy entering the library. "Oh, great."

Giles looked and saw her standing there. "Oh, hello. What can I do for you, madam?" he asked politely, but she merely pushed Giles out of the way, heading straight for Aria, but Buffy got in front of her.

"Get out of my way, little girl, this is between me and my foster daughter," Nancy hissed, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"Wrong," Buffy said sharply. "Because when it involves my friends, then you can bet that I'm gonna get involved. You aren't gonna touch Aria, not while I'm around."

"What do you want, Nancy?" Aria said as she moved out from behind Buffy and stuck right by her side. She wasn't going to let Buffy fight her battles for her, but she wasn't stupid enough to think that she could take on Nancy just yet, not if what Angel said was true and she was a demon.

"I want you to do what you agreed to do when I took you in and come home with me," Nancy spat. "That does not include sneaking out in the middle of the night and spending the nights with . . . friends." She eyed Buffy as though this were the last thing she would consider the Slayer before looking back at Aria.

"Sorry," Aria said quietly. "But I don't consider a home a place where your foster mother is gonna hand you over to demons."

If she had reached out and punched Nancy, Aria was sure she couldn't have surprised her much further. Her eyes widened and then they trained on Buffy in realisation. "Slayer," she hissed and Buffy took a defensive position. "Think you can protect her? Well, Josephine's going to be hunting down the thing that eluded her twelve years ago. And she'll kill anything that gets between Arwen and her."

"Well, we're not letting her go," Buffy said fiercely while Aria glared at her in annoyance. "She's with us."

"Then perhaps you're forgetting that I hold custody of her and running away from me will result in her getting picked up by social services and then thrust into another foster home, perhaps far, far away from here. So if you want to stay in Sunnydale, Arwen, then I would suggest coming home after school. Think about that," she added as she left the library and the doors closed behind her quietly, but to Aria, the doors sounded like thunder.

Willow and Xander had already helped Giles up as Aria turned to look at Buffy desperately. "Now what do we do?"

"We start training you, right after school," Buffy said firmly. "And then we track these guys down and we kill them."

Aria nodded, but another thought had crossed her mind. "And what then? Nancy's still right; they could still take me away from here." And she didn't want to leave, she realised. For the first time in her life, she felt like she belonged somewhere. It was a nice feeling.

"That's not going to happen," Buffy said firmly. "You wanna know why? Because I won't let it." And Aria believed her.

--

How Aria was able to get through her classes while thinking about what her foster mother was going to do and what this Josephine wanted with her, she had no idea, but eventually, the last bell rang and she headed into the library, tossed her bag on the table before looking at the senior Slayer and Watcher.

"All right, so let's get this party started," she said brightly. Buffy chuckled as she walked over to her.

"Okay, first thing we need to do is learn how to . . ."

They trained for hours. Between Buffy and Giles, Aria was able to learn pretty fast how to throw a decent punch—which she pretty much knew how to do—and move her body to adapt to situations. By the time that dinner was rolling around, Aria and Buffy were sparring and for the first time all afternoon, Aria was winning.

Buffy blocked her next attack before sending a spinning kick towards her, which Aria ducked before knocking the blonde off of her feet and pinning her to the ground.

"Well done, both of you!" Giles sounded delighted as Aria rolled off of Buffy and helped her to her feet before walking over to the table, sitting down. "Excellent work! That was really quite spectacular!"

"Anybody mind if we take five?" Aria asked, still breathing heavily. They had been going at it all afternoon.

"Not at all. In fact, I think you could do with some rest. You've earned it. I've never seen anyone come so far in just one afternoon."

"Grow up in a children's shelter, you learn how to fight pretty fast, Giles," Aria told him. "I can keep going, I just need a couple minutes."

"No, you go with Buffy and you relax some," Giles ordered. "You've been going at all afternoon and you're wiped out. Now I am ordering you to get some rest, Aria Sawyer, do you understand me?" He looked so serious that Aria couldn't help but grin.

"Yes, sir," she said weakly. "Think your mom's gonna be annoyed if I stay over again?" she asked, looking over at Buffy.

"Nah, she likes you. Mom actually asked me if you were going to be coming over again. She thinks you're a little strange, but she thinks all of my friends are strange. Heck, she thinks I'm strange."

"Good to know I finally fit in somewhere," Aria remarked as she stood up. "What excuse are we using this time?"

"We tell her that your foster mom's a demon and you got yourself kicked out of the house, pretty much," Buffy replied seriously as the two Slayers headed out of the school. "Anyway, that's what I told her when I called her earlier and asked if you could stay over again tonight. She's making chicken."

Aria smiled as they walked home. "So in your professional opinion, how did I do? I know Giles was overexcited, but I'd like to know your opinion."

"You did good," Buffy assured her. Aria raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. "I mean, yeah, you got knocked down a lot, but that was just in the first couple of hours. And you were pulling your kicks, but I made that mistake in the beginning too."

"Really?"

"My first time out staking a vampire, I missed the heart," Buffy told her. "And if you ever tell anyone I told you that, I will deny it and never speak to you again."

"Your secret's safe with me," Aria assured her. "You think Giles is gonna be able to get custody of me?" After much discussion on how to keep Aria in Sunnydale, Giles told them that they best chance was to appeal to the Council and get them to get him custody of her. He had given them the call that afternoon and they were supposed to call him back.

"I don't know. Probably, yeah. The Council's just a bunch of old, stuffy Watchers who sit back and let us do all the fighting. Since we're on a hellmouth, it's probably giving them more incentive to put another Slayer here." Buffy stopped talking and looked around sharply.

"What is it?" Aria whispered, closing her eyes and trying to figure out what Buffy was feeling.

"Vampire," Buffy muttered. "Don't close your eyes, keep them wide open." Aria obeyed as she looked around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. She could sense it now too and they stuck together as they moved further into the street, keeping a look out.

That was when Aria saw a flash of red hair. "Buffy, look out!" she shouted, pushing the blonde out of the way before she felt the back of her head explode in pain and she heard Buffy yell her name before everything went black.


	6. Capture and Escape

**Chosen by Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Six: Capture and Escape

As she woke, Aria felt like her head had drums on it and somebody was pounding on it, throbbing painfully and agonisingly. She moaned slightly as her head rolled to the side and her eyelids fluttered open to find Buffy looking straight at her, her hazel eyes meeting Aria's blue ones.

"Aria? You all right?"

"Depends," Aria groaned. "Is this some kind of weird nightmare that I'm just going to wake up from?"

"Nope."

"Then I'm definitely not okay," Aria muttered as she blinked, trying to sit up and realised that her hands were bound. "Why does my head feel like it's been bashed into?"

"Because it has," Buffy told her dryly. "You were hit in the back of the head with a pipe." Aria blinked; that explained it. "I'm sorry, I should've been paying better attention. This is all my fault."

"Yeah, and they would've found me eventually," Aria pointed out. "I assume that these are the same vampires that want me dead, right?"

"That's right," a new voice said from behind Aria, but she couldn't turn her head to see who was talking to her.

Footsteps approached and Aria peered up at the female vampire that came into her view.

For being a dead woman, she was pretty. Her hair was a violent shade of red, with streaks of blond in it. Her eyes were a deep green, but held a certain darkness to them. She was smirking at the two Slayers as she pulled out a tube of lipstick, holding up a compact mirror as she applied it to her lips.

"I'm going to want to look my best for the party tonight," she said brightly. "After all, I'm going to have to celebrate. No one in history has ever captured two Slayers before. I'm trying to decide what I should have for dinner. A nice virgin's always good for celebration. Then again, I could always go for those nice friends of yours. They look like they would make a nice meal."

"Last I checked, we're not dead yet," Buffy countered. "And you're not going to lay a hand on them."

"I'm not going to have to go after them, Slayer. They're going to come right to us, once they find out that we've got you two in captivity. Plus, I doubt Angelus is going to let either of you slip through his fingers. He still feels guilty about letting her mother die." She let out a laugh at Aria's expression. "Oh, yes, you didn't know that, did you? Your friends didn't tell you? Your friend Angel was once known as Angelus, the Scourge of Europe. Then he got cursed with a soul a hundred years ago and went around like a good-for-nothing until he met Buffy here. It was love at first sight. Romeo and Juliet kind of thing. They fell in love and then he started helping her.

"Of course, it's not the first time that he's done good. He also helped you twelve years ago. You didn't really think it was a coincidence that he knew so much about you and had the same name as the man who rescued you from your mother's house before I could get my hands on you? You did? Oh, what a shame, I gave you credit for being a lot smarter."

Aria's head spun at this revelation. Angel was a vampire? A vampire who was in possession of his soul and helped protect people from his own kind? Not only that, but he was, in fact, the same Angel that had rescued her all those years ago? She could hardly believe the woman's words, but at the same time . . . at the same time, she knew they were true. If she looked back now, she realised that the Angel she knew all those years ago and the Angel she knew now were one of the same.

"Okay, so you know who we are," Buffy pointed out, trying to steer the conversation into a different direction. "You mind telling us who you are and what you want?"

"I think that's Josephine," Aria said quietly. "Am I right?" she added, directing this particular question towards the redheaded vampire. She laughed, but nodded.

"And Arwen gets one point, let's continue the game shall we?" she asked with a smile. "So long as we keep playing, the longer you two stay alive. It's more entertaining that way."

"If it's entertainment that you want, then why don't you let us out and we fight our way out?" Buffy suggested. "I mean, it'd be interesting to know how many of your boys we can take down while we're both hurt and wounded."

"Hmm. Interesting theory, but no. I'm not going to take the risk of letting two Slayers out of my grasp, not when we're still having so much fun."

"You call this fun?" Aria spat at her. "You killed my mother, you psychopathic lunatic!"

Green eyes met blue and Josephine's went golden for a moment. "You aren't the first person to call me that, nor will you be the last," she said softly. "And it wasn't just your mother either." Aria stared at her. "Did you know what happened to your daddy? Did you know that when he found out what your mother was, he went out into the night, shouting at her that she was a lunatic and that he wasn't going to be seen with her?"

Aria looked away, not wanting to hear any of this. "Ignore her, Aria," Buffy whispered. "Just ignore her."

"Well, Edward was nice and tasty," Josephine continued as though she hadn't heard Buffy. "He tasted like cinnamon and spices. Mm," she moaned in remembrance. "I can still taste that delicious blood flowing down my throat before I fed him my own blood. That's right," she added to Aria's horrified look. "He became my childe and Gwyneth lost her love to me. Edward left town, only returning a few years later when you were a few years old. In order to save you, Gwyneth had to stake her lover. But not before he told me about you.

"From the minute that I heard about the daughter of a Slayer, I was obsessed. I wanted to know what would become of you when you grew up, little Arwen. So I decided to lure your mommy into a trap. Of course, I didn't think that she would get my mate. But then again, all's fair in love and war. I got her love and she got mine. Eye for an eye.

"But you got away, didn't you? Thanks to dear, dependable Angel. You grew up away from this world until you got sucked back into it. And you never wondered why."

"Because it's the gift that my mother gave to me," Aria replied, realising that Buffy was doing something and was trying keeping Josephine's attention fixed on her.

"Well, I guess you could see it that way, but no, that's not the reason," Josephine corrected her. "There's a few things that the Watchers' Council doesn't know, like . . . sometimes things are prophesised and we demons do whatever it takes to make sure that prophecies go our way. Do you think I wanted to turn you for the pure sport of it? No, my dear girl, I wanted to turn you so you would fight for us."

"What are you talking about?"

"_There will a Slayer who gives birth to a daughter and that daughter will grow up to inherit her mother's legacy,_" Josephine recited while Buffy was picking the locks on her chains with a hairpin. "_And when this daughter comes to the mouth of hell, she will join her sister Slayer and the two will wreak havoc upon the forces of darkness. But, should she join the forces of darkness, then hell will rain down upon them and suck the earth into its own destruction._

"So you see? We knew that there was a possibility that you would be the daughter of the prophecy," Josephine said calmly. "Which is why we wanted to make sure that, if you were, you would be fighting on our side. That's why I got rid of your mother. And that's why," she added with a wicked grin, "I'm going to kill you now."

Just as Josephine's pretty face twisted into a demonic one, Buffy broke through the chains. "Did anybody ever tell you that sometimes, you just don't get your way?" she asked calmly. Josephine spun around and Buffy punched her, sending her to the ground.

"Do you know how to pick locks?"

"You won't believe what they taught me at that orphanage," Aria replied and Buffy tossed the hairpin to her. Catching it easily, Aria began working on the locks, breaking through them just as Buffy was about to decapitate her.

"Buffy, wait!" Aria protested as she shoved the cuffs off of her and Buffy glanced at her, keeping Josephine pinned to the wall. "Don't kill her. I need this one," she said, almost pleadingly to the senior Slayer. Buffy glanced at Josephine, then at Aria, and let go of the redhead vampire, handing the Swiss Army Knife she had to the younger Slayer. "I'm supposed to decapitate her with this?" she asked.

"It'll work," Buffy assured her as Josephine leaped up. "Aria, don't die!" she warned her as Aria spun around, delivered a good punch to her, sending the redhead vampire to the ground.

"That was for my mother!" she snapped before kicking her in the ribs. "That was for my father! And this . . . this is for me!" She delivered a final punch to Josephine, knocking her unconscious before using the knife to decapitate her, turning her into dust.

Breathing heavier than she usually did, Aria looked back at Buffy, stunned. "That felt good," she said as she handed the knife back to her sister Slayer. "So what's the plan?"

"We bust out," Buffy replied as she hurried over to the door, picking the lock quickly before peering out of the cell. "Looks like we're in the sewer systems. That's good."

"How is that good? Who knows how many vampires are gonna be down here with us?" Aria pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's also good because there's hundreds of accesses all over the city, so we might be able to get out of here without even meeting one of them. Come on, let's go."

The two Slayers stepped out into the hallway and Buffy picked up a piece of wood that was on the ground, gripping it tightly. "If you find anything that might be useful, then grab it," she muttered in an undertone to Aria, who nodded, keeping an eye out. "No offence, but I kind of wish Angel was here. He knows the sewer systems a lot better than I do."

"Uh . . . Buffy?" Aria said quietly. "That stuff Josephine was saying . . . about Angel being a vampire. That was true, wasn't it?" Buffy sighed and looked down. "That's what I thought." Aria stubbed the toe of her shoe on the sewer floor. "But he is good, right?"

"Yes," Buffy said immediately. "Yes, he is very good."

Aria nodded once, reaching up and rubbing her head painfully. "Okay, then," she said simply. "That's all that I need to know."

"You're taking it a lot better than I did when I found out," Buffy observed as they walked through the sewers, trying to find an access to get out.

"Oh, I am way past freaking out about anything right now," Aria said dryly as they were suddenly confronted with a vampire, who growled as he launched himself onto them.

As Buffy got into a fight, Aria spun around to punch the vampire that came up from behind them, taking a defensive stance as he got to his feet, a low growl escaping from him as he struck her. Blocking attack after attack, Aria dropped down and kicked him down, swiping under his feet.

"Buffy, stake!" she called, ready to catch it as Buffy tossed it to her and Aria plunged it into the vampire's heart, turning him into dust. As soon as the dust settled, she tossed the stake back to Buffy, who destroyed her own vampire before lowering her hand.

"Nice job."

"You too." The two Slayers continued walking down the sewer, finally reaching an access and Buffy urged her up, keeping an eye out for any more vampires as Aria climbed up, pushing the access open and climbing out before reaching down to help her sister out. "Now what? It's not gonna take them long to figure out that we escaped."

Buffy opened her mouth to say something just as they heard their names being called. Aria looked around to see Angel running towards them, followed by Giles, Willow, and Xander.

"Are two okay?" Angel asked them, looking between the two girls. Aria nodded, deciding to wait until a later date to ask him about the whole vampire thing. "What happened?"

"We got attacked by Josephine," Buffy said dryly. "Don't worry, she's dead. Aria killed her."

"Really?" Giles sounded pleased. "Well, that's good. That's . . . well done."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Giles," Aria commented, having noticed something that was approaching from behind them.

"Why not?" Buffy asked and Aria pointed.

"That's why not," she answered and they all turned to see about twenty or so vampires all approaching them. "Why do I have the feeling that this is going to be a long night?"

"Let's get to work," Angel said as they tossed the girls weapons before heading straight for battle.

--

AN: Okay, guys, there's just one more chapter left of "Chosen by Destiny" and then we'll get started on the next story, which is just basically a rewrite of Season 2, just putting Aria into the story. So if guys are good and get me . . . say, three or four reviews, then I will post the last chapter tonight.

Thanks!

Lady Dawson


	7. A Home and Friends

**Chosen by Destiny**

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Seven: A Home and Friends

Hours later, Aria was sitting at one of the tables in the library, an ice patch held on her knee, which was throbbing badly while she had a bandage over her left eye. Next to Willow, Xander, and Giles, however, Aria had to admit that she had it easy. They were all lucky that they didn't have to go to the hospital.

When the vampires and demons attacked, they had pretty much been forced to fight back and decapitate anything that got near them. Aria had held her own pretty well until she came face-to-face with her foster mother.

Finding out that she was a demon beforehand had prepared her for this, but Aria hadn't really been prepared for the fact that Nancy was actually trying to kill her.

"They're going to turn on you, in the end," she'd hissed at Aria, who hesitated as she held the sword in her hand. "It doesn't matter what you do to try and prove yourself or how far you go to be the Slayer. These so called friends of yours are going to turn on you. Why fight for them when you know that you're going to lose everything?"

Aria swallowed. "Because it's not for me that I'm fighting for," she answered in a half-whisper. "It's so they and people like them can go about their normal lives. It's so they can have normalcy in their life and not know what really goes on after dark. So they can have that blissful ignorance."

She swung her sword and with a scream, Nancy's head rolled off and thick, yellow goo oozed out of the crumpled body. Aria wrinkled her nose at the smell; if that was what Nancy's blood really looked like, she was so glad that she wasn't going to have to live with anymore.

Although, she probably wouldn't have lasted the rest of the week, anyway, had she not met Buffy.

"How many times has Giles been knocked out, anyway?" Xander suddenly broke the silence. Aria glanced over at the unconscious Watcher, lying peacefully on the desk.

"Too many to count," Buffy replied. She was lying comfortably in Angel's arms, the two of them looking better than the rest of them, as she looked over at the brunette Slayer. "Aria? You all right?"

"I'll let you know once I catch my breath," Aria assured her. Everyone laughed. "Jeez, this has been a long . . . has it only been one day?" she asked in amazement.

"Only one," Angel told her.

"Only one day," Aria said, shaking her head in amazement. "That would explain why I'm so tired. In one day, I found out demons are real, my mother was a Slayer, I inherited her powers, got kidnapped and knocked out, and had to fight twenty or so demons." Buffy chuckled and she looked over at her and Angel. "But it's over, right? I mean, the whole thing with Josephine?"

They looked at each other. "Well, I doubt Josephine was working for anybody," Angel told her. "From what I know about her, she was pretty much her own person. But I'll check my sources just to be on the safe side." Aria nodded, smiling gratefully at him.

"Thanks." He nodded as Giles suddenly groaned from the table, sitting up straight as he massaged the back of his head. Aria handed him a spare ice pack, which he accepted appreciatively, moving it to the back of his head and looked around at the rest of the group.

"Did we win?" Aria nodded, amused. "Oh, good. I would hate to think I had this throbbing pain in the back of my neck for nothing." He groaned again.

"Well, as much as I hate to say this, I think your mom's probably worried about you," Aria reminded Buffy.

"And you, remember, I told her you were staying over again." Aria nodded as Buffy reluctantly got up from her chair, kissing Angel goodbye and whispering something to him that caused him to smile.

Aria watched the pair, a great longing in her heart as she saw the love that passed between the two of them. It would be nice to have what the two of them had, to have a boy look at her the way Angel looked at Buffy. But there were trials upon the horizon for both of them, moving slowly towards them now, but soon to come faster. And Aria would be there every step of the way, to help guide them through it.

--

"Thank you so much for letting me stay here, Mrs. Summers," Aria said gratefully as she put the last of her stuff in the shelves in the Summers' guest room, which was now her bedroom. Although Giles had applied to the Council to get custody of Aria, Mrs. Summers had offered to foster Aria, giving her a home for as long as she wanted it. And if truth be told, Aria would much rather prefer living with Mrs. Summers and Buffy than Giles, though she would never tell him that.

"It's no problem at all, Aria," Mrs. Summers assured her. "But I insist that you call me Joyce. Besides," she added, looking towards her daughter, who was helping Aria put her things in the closet, "friends should stick together. Welcome home." She hugged Aria, much to her surprise, and Aria hugged her back before Joyce left the two girls alone.

"I cannot believe that your mom actually managed to get custody of me," Aria said, shaking her head. "Man, I thought for sure that they were going to make me leave Sunnydale. Two days and my foster mom 'vanished,' that does not look good on paper."

Buffy chuckled. "Well, once we Summers women put our minds to something, there is nothing that we can't achieve. How's the knee?" she added, nodding to where Aria had bashed it into a demon the night they'd escaped from Josephine.

"It's good, it's stopped hurting, finally." Aria smiled as she folded the last pair of jeans, placing it the dresser. "Buffy, are you sure that _you're_ okay with my staying here?"

Her sister Slayer looked surprised. "Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way. This may sound strange, but if I had a sister, I think that she'd be somewhat like you. Besides, it's like Mom said, friends should stick together."

"Not just friends," Aria said with a smile at her. "Sisters."

Buffy grinned at the two girls hugged each other as they sat on the bed and when Aria pulled away, she looked towards the door. "Now, I should probably go. I need to go do something."

"Wait a few more hours."

"Huh?"

Buffy shrugged. "Angel's probably sleeping right about now. It's about midnight for him," she explained. Aria stared at her. "Look, I know you want to go over there and ask him exactly what happened with your mother and believe me, he will tell her. Just wait until later. We're going to the Bronze anyway and he usually shows up."

Aria groaned as she leaned back against the pillows. "Oh, fine," she grumbled. Buffy chuckled and threw a pillow at her.

"Oh, sure, be disappointed that you have to wait to go talk to _my_ boyfriend," she said with a grin. Aria laughed, looking up at her. "No staking him, though. Not on my watch."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aria assured her. "I'm not stupid, I know that he probably did a lot of things before this whole curse thing, but the guy that I've come to know over the past few days is a good guy. And besides, there's a lot of people in the world who shouldn't really be considered human. The fact that Angel's not shouldn't make any difference."

Buffy nodded, no longer smiling. "Make sure you tell _him_ that," she told her. "He needs to hear it from someone other than me."

"No problem."

--

Aria found Angel's apartment pretty easily, thanks to Buffy's directions, and she heard movements in the apartment before she knocked on it, alerting him to her presence.

He looked pretty surprised to see her. "Hey," he said.

"Hey, yourself," Aria said with a smile at him. "Can we talk? It's not anything bad, I promise," she assured him, seeing his expression.

"No good conversation ever begins with, 'we need to talk'," Angel pointed out, but he opened his door wider to admit her and he led her into his apartment, which was decorated with tons of stuff from across Europe. Mostly paintings, but some statuary and stuff. "What's up?" he asked as they sat down on the couch.

Aria sighed, wondering where to begin, and looked at him. "I know," she finally said. Angel furrowed her brow at her cryptic. "Josephine . . . told me that you're a vampire. Not only that, but you're the same Angel who rescued me from my house twelve years ago." Angel looked away, not meeting her gaze.

"Yeah, I am," he confessed. "I'm sorry, I should've told you the truth, once I realised who you were. I just . . . I didn't want you to—"

"Did I say I was mad for not knowing?" Aria interrupted him. "I'm pretty sure I didn't, because I'm not." Angel cocked an eyebrow. "Look, I'm not saying that it didn't shock me, but a part me already knew, the second that you said my name. I didn't come over here to confront you about it. I came here . . . because I want to know about my mother. I want to know what happened, how she died, and how you happened to know where I was."

Angel visibly relaxed and he nodded. "I can do that," he said, standing up and walking over to the kitchen, pulling two cups out of the cabinet and brewing some tea, handing one to her. She accepted it gratefully, glad to have something else to focus on when he began his story.

"It was in Wilmington, North Carolina," he began. "Your mother lived there with her Watcher Samuel Wyatt. I wasn't in any hurry to meet a Slayer, so I usually avoided them. But I don't know . . . something just told me that I needed to go there.

"When I arrived, I scouted for a place to stay, found one at some abandoned houses. Along the way, I heard some vampires talking about Gwyneth, your mother. They said that Josephine had found out that she had a child, a daughter, Arwen. How she managed to find out when it had been hidden from the rest of the world, I don't know . . ."

"My father," Aria murmured. Angel glanced at her, startled. "That's what Josephine told me last night. My father was turned after my mom got pregnant with me and he told her about me."

Angel shook his head. "That would explain it. I'm sorry, it's not a fate I would wish on anyone," he told her. Aria looked down, wishing that she knew what her parents had looked like. Her mother was just a blurred image and her father, she couldn't even remember anything.

"It's not your fault," she told him. "You didn't do that to Dad."

"I did to others," Angel said quietly. "Some of them, I did more than that. I destroyed everything that they were."

"No, you didn't," Aria countered. He stared. "Your demon did. You couldn't have controlled what you did before your curse, Angel. The only crimes that you're guilty of are the ones that happened after the curse and when you were still human."

"I wish I could believe that," Angel sighed before continuing his tale. "So when I heard the rumours, I went to your house to see for myself. And I saw you there, a bright-eyed four-year-old, reading to your mom's Watcher. _Peter Pan_, I think it was.

"When your mom got home, I immediately recognised the similarities between the two of you and that's when I knew that the rumours were true. That you were actually Gwyneth's daughter, the daughter of a Slayer. So I went to some of the local demon bars to see if I could find out any more about what Josephine was planning. Managed to get some information out of one of her friends. I wanted to warn your mom, but I knew she would never have trusted me. She would've recognised me for what I was straight away.

"By the time that I got to where Josephine was holed up the next night, it was already too late. They had gotten both your mom and her Watcher. I ran back to your house, hoping that you were still there. I was able to enter the house because your mom was the owner of it and since she was dead, the barrier had broken.

"As for how I found you, well, you were pretty scared. Fear comes off of people like waves, it's a pretty easy emotion to smell. That's how I found you and took you away. I knew Arwen was too easy to trace; Josephine would've found you in a matter of days, so that's why I told you to change your name. It wasn't that I didn't think that Josephine would've found you eventually; I just hoped that by the time that she did, you would be able to defend yourself, fight back. And it worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah, it did," Aria said, shocked that she still possessed the ability to speak after his story.

"And you know the rest of the story. I took you to the shelter and you grew up safe and sound."

Aria nodded, looking down and wiping away the tears. "Angel?" she asked in a small voice. "What was my mother like?"

Angel sighed. "I don't really know; I never really met her. But I imagine she was a lot like you."

That thought cheered her considerably and she smiled at Angel before moving towards him and hugging him. She could feel his surprise, but he hugged her back until she pulled away, giving him another smile that was completely free of the tears she'd been shedding all night.

"Friends?" she asked, offering him her hand. He looked at her in complete shock.

"You want to be friends . . . with a vampire?"

"Is it any weirder than a Slayer having a daughter or a vampire having a soul or a Slayer in love with a vampire?" Aria countered. Angel's mouth twitched and he accepted her hand.

"Well, then, yeah. Friends," he agreed.

"Good. And thank you, for telling me," she told him, but he just shook his head.

"You deserved to know how your mother died," he pointed out. "And thank you, for trusting me."

Aria shrugged. "You haven't given me any reason not to." She stood up. "I should go. I promised Buffy I'd met her and the others at the Bronze." Angel nodded as he followed her to the door.

"Tell her I'll see her later?"

"Will do." Aria smiled at him as she headed out the door, an old, familiar phrase coming to mind.

This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

AN: Okay, this is the end of "Chosen by Destiny," but there _will_ be a sequel, as I promised in the previous chapter. "Destiny's Call" will be posted tonight if I get enough reviews. Say . . . three or four? Come on, what do you guys say? Do we have a deal?

Lady Dawson


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